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THE HISTORY OF ESSEX HERONRIES.
By WILLIAM E. GLEGG, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.
HUNDREDS of years before ornithology had become a
serious study the Heron, probably by reason of its size
and its importance to falconry, had become closely associated
with the affairs of the people of Essex. Morant, for example,
tells us that in 1304 Cicely, the widow of Humfrey de Hastings,
held the manor of White Roding by the service of keeping
two lanner falcons for heron-hawking and a greyhound trained
to make a heron rise for the use of the King. A number of the
place and family names of the County are stated to owe their
origin to the Heron. In spite of this, unfortunately very little
early information of the existence of heronries has been handed
down to us.
The earliest reference to an Essex heronry, of which I have
knowledge, is that of Norden in his description of Essex. Writing
in 1594 he informs us that there is a heronry at Tolleshunt
D'Arcy, but beyond this bald statement we have no informa-
tion regarding this colony. Morant in his History of Essex,
written in 1768, states that there was formerly a heronry at
Belhus, Aveley, which, on account of its rarity, was esteemed
an object of no small consequence while hawking was in fashion,
but later was not considered to compensate for its inconveniences
and the Herons were not allowed to nest. This heronry may
have disappeared before the beginning of the eighteenth century
for in Holman's manuscript History of Essex, written about
1710, and stated to be preserved at Colchester, is the following
reference to it :—"Here was a heronry, where the Herons built
"on the lofty oaks and fed their yonge ones, by fish caught out
"of the channell that's near." Although it is probable that
there were during the period heronries scattered over the County
we have to bridge a gap of about one hundred and forty years
before we can find mention of another colony. The Bright-
lingsea Heronry must have been one of the most important re-
corded from Essex. It was situated on the Wyvenhoe side
of the Twenty-seven Acre Grove, known as Heronry Wood, on
Mr. Bateman's estate, about a quarter-of-a-mile west of Bright-
lingsea Church. It must have been in existence before 1844,
about which time the largest trees were felled, resulting in a